#DailyDevotion Live By Faith Or By How Amazing You Are

2 Cor. 12:7 So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Pride can be a serious detriment to one’s spirituality that is to your relationship with God. God apparently didn’t want Paul running off the rails because of the visions he had received. He was given a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him. No one knows what this was. Some think it was a debilitating disease because of the ‘in the flesh’ phrase. Others think it was a person who followed Paul around harassing him, perhaps reminding Paul of his past. Some think is was perhaps some sinful habit to keep Paul always relying upon the grace of God in Christ Jesus for his salvation. We just don’t know.

Paul prayed three times that the Lord would take this affliction from him. The Lord said no. The Lord doesn’t often say no. No is an answer to unbelief and doubting usually. Wait, not in the manner, form, amount, time and the like is often an answer to prayer because we don’t know how or what to pray for, but the Lord answers our prayer in faith with yes but I have a better answer. But to Paul he says no.

Why? His answer, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul was going to have to rely on the Lord’s grace in dealing with how this thorn in his flesh affected him and his work. He could not rely on what he had experienced to back him up or elevate himself. Whatever it was that was afflicting Paul, like saints of old, he was just going to have to rely on God grace and mercy to do the work set before him. Like David facing Goliath, he was going to have to rely upon the promises of God. As said yesterday, often the Lord in the Old Testament would use impossible odds to demonstrate to his people that it was he who was fighting for them. It is no different for Paul and for us.

Perhaps you have something you’ve been asking the Lord to remove from you because you believed it made you weak. You keep asking but the answer seems to be no. Well perhaps the Lord is using that to keep you humble also. His grace is sufficient for you. Your standing before him is not based on whatever it is that is afflicting you. Your standing before him is based on your faith in his grace, mercy and power in Christ Jesus. That grace is sufficient for you. His power is being made perfect in your weakness that is he is demonstrating his power in your life in and through that which makes you weak. If the Lord isn’t removing it, perhaps you should ask how you can use it to help others and to comfort others in their weakness.

Lord Jesus Christ, you power is made perfect in weakness and your grace is sufficient. Grant us faith to believe this and to live our lives in faith in your promises. Amen.